Caliente Complex Lawsuit Update: Oral Arguments Before Court of Appeals

Early last week The Cloud Foundation’s legal team at Eubanks and Associates gave oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in our Caliente Complex lawsuit. For the past two years, TCF and our coalition partners have fought to stop the zeroing out, or elimination of all wild horses and burros, in the Caliente Complex in eastern Nevada. The Caliente Complex spans 911,000 acres of public lands, includes 9 Herd Management Areas and was home to thousands of wild horses and burros. We have poured everything we have (hearts and dollars) into this appeal and we now await the final ruling from the court. 

A little history on the lawsuit:

In 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a Decision to conduct one roundup to zero out the Complex, but it was clear that one roundup could not possibly result in the removal of every horse in the Complex. As expected, in 2018, the BLM issued a new Decision to conduct additional roundups over a 10-year period in order to zero out all horses and burros in the Caliente Complex. This time we, along with our coalition partners, filed a lawsuit to stop the Caliente zeroing out, since it was clear that BLM's proposed series of roundups would actually result in the removal of all horses from the Complex.

Even though the single roundup authorized in 2009 could not - and did not - result in the elimination of all wild horses from the Caliente Complex, the district court ruled that our coalition of plaintiffs should have sued in 2009. The district court also stated that due to a 6-year statute of limitation on the 2009 decision, we were barred from litigation in the current (2018) zeroing out. The Court’s rationale was that the BLM intended to zero out the Complex in 2009 and that the statute of limitations applies to any future decisions with the same objective.

What happens now?

We, along with our team of lawyers, continue to believe that the statute of limitations applies to each Decision that harms our interests (preserving our wild horses & burros) - even if a similar decision had been previously made years earlier and not fulfilled. Nevertheless, if the court of appeals upholds the district court's ruling, it may make it more difficult for TCF and members of the public to challenge unlawful decisions in order to ensure transparency of government actions.

Over the past 50 years, the BLM has zeroed out or eliminated approximately 40% of the original Congressionally-designated wild horse and burro habitat. This is why it is SO important that we fight to stop the further elimination of wild horse herds, and we will continue to oppose similar actions that threaten wild horse and burro populations in the future.

We are forever grateful to our wonderful supporters who have generously supported this legal battle to stop the BLM from eliminating nearly one million acres of wild horse and burro habitat. We could not continue our work of fighting to preserve these magnificent American icons without you.